Workstream 2:
Action & Implementation

Enable effective action and implementation of high-quality Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance solutions in poor and vulnerable countries

Program Alliance Implementing Partner Update – The United Nations Development Programme Insurance and Risk Finance Facility: Practical Solutions Through Partnership

By United Nations Development Programme

In early 2021, UNDP will launch its first ever dedicated resource and unit for Insurance and risk finance. The UNDP Insurance and Risk Finance Facility will be a one-stop shop for UNDP Country Offices, programme countries and partners to work together and make insurance and risk finance a critical building block of sustainable development. 

Networking, policy and guidance, tools and frameworks, partnerships and potential funding sources, through UNDP’s global network of country offices are presented here: 

The Facility has five main components – inclusive insurance, risk finance, natural capital and risk, insurance investments and the integration of insurance and risk finance into development. Underpinning these are typical areas that bind UNDP work across all countries: a focus on governance, convening and leadership, special attention to inclusion and empowerment, increasing use of technology and innovation, with work grounded in increasingly influential research and evidence. 

Two areas of work underpin each workstream: working with government and partners to transform for the long term the country conditions relating to insurance and risk finance. This is blended with the development and deployment of insurance products, tools and services with our partners.  

The Tripartite Agreement: Partnership in Action

One of the most important partnerships between UNDP and the insurance industry is the Tripartite Agreement, signed at the climate summit in 2019 between UNDP, the German Government and the Insurance Development Forum. UNDP and the insurance industry have made bold commitments through this agreement to develop and deliver risk-finance solutions for 20 countries by 2025.  

Comparative advantage and blending of expertise are critical to this partnership endeavour. Industry leads on the modelling of risk and the development of the risk-finance options and recommendations while UNDP leads on government liaison and project coordination.

UNDP also compliments this with investments in long-term integration of risk financing into development, through work on legislation, regulation and institutions, coupled with a focus on a country’s public finance management and its commitments to key development frameworks, such as commitments to the Paris Agreement. 

2020 was a critical development year for the Tripartite Agreement. A broad set of 20 countries were selected for first focus and meetings took place between UNDP Country Offices and industry representatives at each meeting. Discussions in eight countries are now on the cusp of being mature enough to open up conversations with relevant government representatives, so that they can co-create risk-finance solutions with industry and UNDP. 

More information on the Tripartite Agreement 

Leveraging UNDP

Critical to the success of the Insurance and Risk Finance Facility will be its ability to bring to bear the full weight of UNDP as a multilateral development partner to countries. Health, human mobility, adaptation, disaster-risk-reduction, biodiversity, social protection and more are all existing UNDP efforts being connected to the Facility, adding long-term weight to its delivery at country level.